1. Hello! Long time reader here. I’ve bee re-watching The Bad Batch in anticipation of the soon to be released 3rd season. My kids are just now getting into Clone Wars by watching it on Disney Plus, and I’ve been scrambling to find figures on the secondary market.

Given the similar animation styles would Hasbro have the capacity (let alone the desire) to dust off some of the older molds from the Clone Wars series and rerelease and redeco them to match troopers and droids seen in The Bad Batch, along with a few new/slightly retooled figures?

Examples off the top of my head:

Commander Cody phase 2 armor, (gray repaint), Captain Rex phase 2 armor, Tactical droid, Battle Droid, phase 2 clone in white and dark gray armor, animated Boba in Kamino outfit could be used for season 1 Omega, Cade Bane (slightly retooled) with Todo, Admiral Yularen could become Rampart, Republic Commando Boss could be repainted easily as Scorch or plain white/gray variant - or even used as Hunter.

It seems like something the old Hasbro might do, but given how things are nowadays, and the minimal/near lack of support for new media, highly unlikely or too pricey for them to even consider… maybe I’m just being nostalgic for the good ol’ days?
--Harry

While a sensible proposal, Hasbro hasn't made any animated figures from The Clone Wars in about a decade. Heck, there has been a lot of speculation that there's an era of figure molds that may be lost to the ages but I haven't been able to confirm that. I assume it would be more sensible for Hasbro to just make new molds than to try to find (let alone retool) molds in 2024, especially if they wanted to do something for kids.

One other thing I can't explain is why Disney and Lucasfilm are putting together great shows with lots of toy potential, and then not bringing toys to market. Are orders soft? Do fans just not care? Is the infatuation with the aging collector's market resulting in a complete lack of interest in selling anything to anybody who isn't at least 20? For the time being The Bad Batch fans should probably look at LEGO or Hasbro's Mission Fleet lines, as they seem to have the most robust offerings. And vehicles, gotta consider vehicles.

Looking at offerings for this series, The Bad Batch is particularly painful because Hasbro did do a number of lesser character repaints for Amazon, but the only member of the main cast in the 3 3/4-inch size is Hunter. That's it. One Hunter. We've had Rex a couple of times, one Clone reissued because of a name error on Amazon's exclusive 4-pack, but no Wrecker, no Tech, no Omega, and no Crosshair. It's a weird scenario, I think demand is created by figures being made, but with no figures, demand is low. The Black Series exclusives keep showing up at Walmarts here - some months late - but they're out there, and seemingly not selling quickly. Maybe Hasbro just shrugged off this line, like they have most cartoon lines, and are moving on. Don't get me wrong, they made some nice product (especially for The Clone Wars) but it always gets dropped around season 3.

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2. According to wookieepedia, the astromech KE4-N4 belongs to E-wing pilot, Lieutenant (No First Name) Callahan, with her own entry, so as not to be confused with Lieutenant Debbie Callahan of Police Academy fame or Lieutenant John P. Callahan of the Birminghan Police or a surprising number of other Lt. Callahan's distributed across the internet. Is there a figure of Lt. Callahan announced or planned for the forthcoming vehicle? If not, who should be chosen to pilot the E-wing upon its arrival in, it is said, December, 2024?
--David

Hasbro did indeed confirm a "Pipeline Reveal" for a Lt. Callahan pilot for the vehicle down the road, so you should be able to expect her coming as long as the line doesn't collapse between now and then. That's meant as a joke, but do we really ever know these days?

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FIN

The Bad Batch returned for its third and final season this week with a three-part drop. Why? Well, there was a story arc that pretty much resolved itself in those three episodes, so it makes thematic sense but not a lot of business sense. Content costs money so I don't know why you don't just do one a week. (Do you? Can someone tell me?) It's pretty dark and harder to see, which I am not crazy about. The show is fine, seemingly serving as more connective tissue for the wet smack in the face that was the opening crawl of The Rise of Skywalker.

There's still buzz of two movies coming in 2026. I don't know why they want two movies in a year, given Disney would be basically robbing money from themselves by having competing stories and toy lines. Deadpool 2, Solo, and Avengers all came out within a month. That's not how you maximize shareholder value, people. The thing they're also not saying is that 2027 is the fiftieth anniversary of Star Wars, and those of you who are good at math understand why it is less and less likely that old-school fans will be catered to and also why those who made the first toys, comics, and films are not in the picture.

As of now we don't know much about what to expect until then. Hasbro has shown a lot of "we have that at home" figures like Jango Fett in Vintage and that fifth Paz Vizsla in the 6-inch line, but also some cheaper, fun figures like the Epic Hero line. We're seeing a lot of cost-saving measures across the board, and a lot of Transformers leaks rumored for 2025 are even heavier on reissues and redeco figures. It must be tough for Hasbro - Mattel's Hot Wheels and Masters of the Universe thrive on kitbashed figures, new doll dresses, and car repaints, but the Rhode Island toymaker brands aren't usually all that friendly to the easy thing without significant changes. But I like a nice repaint. I wasted a lot of gas going to Walmarts for the G2 Transformers exclusive toys late last summer, and they were amazing.

Also Sony is taking over the Disney business for DVD and Blu-Ray, and I have no idea if that's going to be big good news for us or not. I feel like I haven't bought very many discs in the last five years, and haven't yet picked up the streaming shows on discs. Heck, I haven't picked up anything TV since Rebels ended and I have so far skipped The Rise of Skywalker - but I could see buying the Mando-verse shows if they had commentaries or some more robust extras. Or pack-in figures.

--Adam Pawlus

Got questions? Email me with Q&A in the subject line now! I'll answer your questions as soon as time (or facts) permit.

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